Galoshes
Comments: 18
I think “galoshes” — and perhaps even more so the singular, “galosh” — is my current favourite word. What a beautiful thing it is. To say it, your tongue has to step in the little glottal puddle of the “g” before leaping from the “l” to the end of the word, the “s” sounds that sound like car tyres in the rain.
We don’t use the word galoshes in Australia. We say gum boots or Wellingtons, revealing by turns an unimaginative pragmatism and a barely repressed furtive adoration of authority. But reading Edward Gorey again recently I came across it and was reminded what a perfect word it is (I think I first heard it on Sesame Street as a child). It even sounds like walking through puddles which is exactly what you do when you wear galoshes. And it cries out to be used as a verb:
— Good heavens, you’re soaking!
— Yes, I galoshed all the way here.
It’s had quite a journey to get here, galoshing through late Middle English from Old French. Ultimately it’s thought to come from the Greek for boot last — kalopous.
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2003.11.05 (Wed) • 23:27
Comments
Posted by Seb 2003.11.06, 01:12
I think you’ll find that galoshes are more like ‘gum shoes’ rather than full-blown wellies, so you wouldn’t want to splash through too deep a puddle.
I don’t know Edward Gorey’s work myself; for me, the word ‘galoshes’ always conjures up Beatrix Potter’s Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher…
Posted by resonance 2003.11.06, 02:09
I never thought of galosh as onomatopoeia. Brilliant!
Posted by Kristen 2003.11.06, 08:17
Jeremy, do you have a copy of Eric Partridge’s brilliant etymological dictionary, Origins? Long out of print (1st edition was 1958, I think), but it’s the best one out there. We spend many happy hours chasing words through their histories.
Posted by Robert Daeley 2003.11.06, 09:54
Being in Southern California where we don’t have rain, we either call them “Big Black Boots” or “Something Weird People Back East Wear” ;)
Posted by jh 2003.11.06, 13:40
Kristen —- I don’t have a copy of Partridge’s book and in fact only dimly recall hearing about it. Your mention of it rings some very faint bells —- and will certainly make me find a copy of it. Thanks for the recommendation.
Posted by Robot Johnny 2003.11.08, 07:09
Galosh! Galosh! Galosh!
Posted by Shoeless Mike 2004.02.07, 13:03
See Katie, they think galosh is a funny word too!
Posted by morst 2004.09.08, 07:13
bump for Phish’s final concerts in Vermont. Many galoshes were to be seen, including the individual galosh on many occasion!
Posted by red galoshes 2005.07.07, 19:20
I had a red galoshes that were a thin rubber which fitted over my shoes like a rubber glove. I just love the word galosh! Galosh! Galosh! Galosh! I even thought I would like to find some but they are more like a sawn off gum boot these days, just not the same at all. Such a shame.
Posted by Carol Cary 2005.11.10, 11:07
Gosh, hasn’t anybody read Joyce’s ” The Dead”? The hero, Gabriel Conroy comes in to a Dublin party wearing galoshes. Then his wife Greta comes in weating same, laughing at her husband for insisting she wear them. The old Irish Aunts never heard of galoshes. Gabriel explains they are all the rage on the continent. Greta, still laughing, says the word reminds her of the Christy Minstrels. And on to the party. Read it!
Posted by Nick Laurie 2005.11.24, 00:04
Thoreau, in ‘Where I Lived, and What I Lived For’ refers to them as `glowshoes’. Not everybody knows that…
Posted by Cliff Morris 2005.12.21, 04:14
In an effort to find out online whatever became of galoshes, I found instead this interesting forum. Let’s hope it works out better than the effort to find galoshes. Eminently practical, galoshes were the winter footwear of my youth—a youth that goes back to the forties. By the fifties, we teens were far too cool to wear galoshes any longer. For the record, galoshes were worn over the shoes, and they are snow boots par excellence, keeping the snow and slush off your shoes and pant bottoms while allowing you to keep your shoes nice and dry, clean, and on your feet. Very cool for kids…and aging men. But they seem to have gone out of fashion in the States. I’m still looking.
The Aussie who loves the sound of the word galoshes would also like the word magoosalum, I think. Magoosalum is a simple concoction of browned hamburger, canned tomatoes, and cooked pasta of your choice. Stir ‘em all together and enjoy.
Posted by Jimmy Benson 2006.02.12, 22:06
I remember galoshes from my youth as big black rubber boots that, as Cliff mentions, do a great job keeping snow, mud and the like off our sneakers and our jeans. They always seemed clunky - part of what goes with the name for me is the adventure putting them on, trying to walk with them encasing our feet then trying to remove them. We even resorted to using plastic bags over our sneakers to help slip in and out of our galoshes and this actually helped quite a lot! I associate the tall black boots with metal clasps most with the name galoshes but I would think that this would be different for other people. Thinking about the name “galoshes” I have to agree further that sloshing through water seems about right and it is a lot of fun by the way. They are still to be seen from time to time and even on students but more out in farm country where some stores still carry then around here.
Posted by mandy 2006.02.15, 08:26
So here is my question….. Can galoshes be considered “rain boots”, the kind that you put directly over your socks? Or are they necessarily put on over pre-existing foot-wear? My 8 year old daughter had a discussion at school - her rain boots were someone elses galoshes….. Technical and regional definitions appreciated…. ~M~
Posted by mandy 2006.02.15, 08:28
P.S. I was raised in the Montreal/Ottawa area…..
Posted by elisabeth 2006.06.14, 12:03
I am from Australia and saw for the first time an Audrey Hepburn and Peter Otoole movie where Audrey had the most fabulous patent-leather, gum boots, I would love to know if there are any boot makers who would consider remaking this great dressed up style of an old classic.
Posted by Jimmy Benson 2006.08.11, 19:40
I think Mandy brings up an interesting question - “Can galoshes be considered “rain boots?” First, I do see the black rubber over the shoe type boots advertised as “rain boots” quite often but to me, I would think of rain boots more as what she describes as going over your socks not over your sneakers or other shoes. These rain boots would be more quick on and off, far less serious, not as warm perhaps but taller and worn for waterproof purposes only and less designed for snow, slush and mud then what I think of as galoshes. Jimmy
Posted by jalapeno 2006.11.21, 09:26
I grew up (1950’s) with the over shoe kind that opened down the front exposing a thinner, foldable waterproof gusset (another great word), made of rubber impregnated cloth, sealed to the thicker rubber outer shell. This allowed easy entry and exit of shoes, while 3 or 4 adjustable metal clamps pulled the outer shell tight over the gusset, thereby holding your pants leg firmly inside the boot.
Actually, last wore this kind in early 1980’s when they were an essential element of the ‘official winter uniform’ of the commercial refrigeration contractor I worked for in upstate NY. Rest of the outfit consisted of Jeans, wool lined canvas Carheart Jacket, long sleeved flannel shirt, and probably a full union suit underneath it all. Everyone on the crew wore this, not due to conformity, but because you could actually work on the roof (where the compressors and condensors often are located) all day, with out freezing to death, and still have pretty unrestricted movement.
Living in Sant Cruz, CA since 1986, I’ve had no use for galoshes, but while gearing up for a ski trip to Whistler in B.C. next month, I thought about getting a pair for walking around ‘aprés ski’, (finding this link in the process), but finally opted (much to my wife’s relief), for some fleece lined suede and rubber over the sock boots from Lands End. Much more stylish, if not as nostalgic.
I think that there’s an illustration, if not an accompanying poem, of Christopher Robin in galoshes in one of the books of poems by A.A. Milne, the author of the original Winnie the Pooh books (please, not to be confused with the later, highly commercialized Disney franchise), and two books of wonderful poetry, ‘When we were very young” ,and “now we are six”.
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